When I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 34 – almost 24 years ago – a diagnosis in someone that young was certainly an anomaly. And although physicians were informed about my treatment options, that’s where the knowledge began – and ended. No one paid heed to my lifestyle. I was young, after all, had two little ones, needed the energy to run after them, was not resigned to sitting on the couch and “taking it easy,” as was the widely- accepted creed, for lack of any other reasonable suggestions. So in my quiet way, I rebelled. (I had never before been a rebel, and the freedom felt foreign and a bit { Read More }
Giveaway Alert: Win a Pair of Women’s Shoes from Dr. Scholl’s Shoes! And they’re super-comfy, too.
Well, someone must have been listening. Just when my feet gave up the idea of being comfortable in just about anything BUT sneakers, a lovely email arrived in my inbox, offering to send me a pair of shoes from Dr. Scholl's new line of comfort footwear. It was tough to pick from the choices of adorable athletic shoes, boots and loafers, and after going back and forth, insisting to myself I needed ALL of them, I finally chose a cute pair of loafers (called the "Florenza"). If you're a boomer, you no doubt had a pair of the original Dr. Scholl's, called an "exercise sandal". (Actually, the brand goes back { Read More }
Valuable Lessons Learned from Aging
I have friends of all ages, ranging in age from 20-somethings to 80-somethings. I enjoy them all; time together is always time well spent. When I'm with the younger ones, I feel like the wise old(er) woman, experienced enough to impart some of my hard-won wisdom upon them. (I never volunteer unless asked. I hate the thought of coming off as pushy or as a know-it-all. That makes me shudder. But asked for my opinion, I will gladly offer it, hoping that I can help). I'm also not too old to learn something from them, too. And being what I'd like to think of as a keen observer, I never fail to notice that { Read More }
How Exercise Can Help Preserve Your Muscles (and Much More)
Ever wonder why experts urge us to lift weights? Strength training gets so much more important as we age because we lose muscle. The loss begins as early as in our late 30s or early 40s; after age 40 the average woman starts losing about ½ pound of muscle per year - even more if she does not actively use her muscles. So what's the big deal? A lot. If you don't replace the muscle you lose, you'll increase the body fat percentage in your body. Gaining muscle has its perks: as you gain it, your body burns calories more efficiently. But strength is not just about being leaner or strong enough to lift { Read More }
The Freezer That Rang (and other tales of memory loss)
I once knew a woman who told me she took away her son’s cell phone to punish him – and then ended up having to buy a new one because she couldn’t remember where she hid it. I thought it odd at the time; after all, how could you possibly misplace something as valuable and important as a phone? Until I did it myself. I lost my cell phone and didn’t find it until…well, it’s kind of embarrassing, humiliating (and all those other words I need a thesaurus to find), so before I own up to this gaffe, I’d like to talk about the obvious – the way our memory changes as we get older. There’s something we start to { Read More }
What Midlife Crisis?
Why do these two words have to go together? The term is even in the dictionary: "A period of emotional turmoil in middle age...characterized especially by a strong desire for change." It's hard for me to believe that 78 million of us (that's how many people were born during the post-World War II baby boom) are making changes in our lives...because of CRISIS. Really? Change, yes. I'd like to think we're always changing and growing. Change is good. It gets us to a better place. So is desire; it propels us forward to make those changes. But why turmoil - does change have to be fueled by { Read More }
Welcome to my Blog!
What's Fear Got to Do With It? Strangely enough, I've been blogging for a pretty long time - almost five years - yet have dragged my feet getting my OWN blog off the ground. It's been a long time in the making. Why? Not sure... but I have a theory: FEAR. What a formidable emotion fear is. It's powerful enough to silence us, make us hide, procrastinate, make excuses (oh, do I have lots of those!), become practically... comatose. But here I (finally) am, introducing you to my new blog. I've gone head-to-head with fear before, and dammit, I'm gonna do it again. And I force myself to ask WHAT IS THE { Read More }
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